White Willow: Future Hopes

Didn't see anything here about this...

Info here: http://www.whitewillow.info/

"It makes us all the more happy to be able to announce that our 7th (!) studio album, Future Hopes, will be released on The Laser's Edge on March 31st this year."

"The album features specially comissioned artwork by none other than Roger Dean, and the mix was done by Christian Engfelt (elephant9, Todd Rundgren). Mastering was taken care of by audiophile legend Bob Katz."





It's a shame about the change of singer (anyone know what happened?), I really liked Sylvia Erichsen's voice and she'll be a tough act to follow.

But I can't wait, if it's anything like Terminal Twilight (which fast became my favourite WW album after Sacrament) it will be stunning.

An instant buy, but I have to say I'm very disappointed to see White Willow resort to the clichéd Roger Dean route for the cover (I mean, as much as we all love Roger Dean's covers!).

Their previous covers have all been wonderful and frequently hold a trace of darkness to them, but this (along with the expected font used for the words) makes it look like White Willow are some lazy retro-prog act, of which they couldn't be further removed from.

Really looking forward to this, Terminal Twilight was stunning so I'm hoping for more of the same in quality. Venke Knutsen was excellent on the Opium Cartel albums and the Animal Magnatism cover they did last year, so keeping the tradition of quality female singers for White Willow following Sylvia Erickson, Trude Eidtang and Sara Trondall.

Chiming in on this one: the album will be released on LP, CD and digital simultaneously, so you'll all get yours ;) The CD/digital versions will have a couple more tunes due to the time constraints of vinyl.

As for the cover, I'm glad you notice that White Willow has had a strong visual profile. Having Roger Dean do the cover art is a childhood dream of ours, and we have been in contact with him since he attended one of our concerts many years ago. The cover is commissioned and specially painted for us, and deals with the lyrical contents of the album, which is loosely conceptual.

We'll let you know when pre-orders are up.

I'm gobsmacked !!
The vinyl is SUPERB !! The compositions do indeed take Prog into the future. This one's definitely modern sounding, even if vintage gear has been used. No 'retro' here.
We have this wonderful band of AMAZING musicians, joined with the stunning Venke Knutson, who sounds like an angel. Plus we get a mind-blowing Roger Dean gatefold artwork. Jacob Holm-Lupo and the crew have done it again. Worth the wait, and every cent. And tbh, I put Future Hopes above the last, excellent release, Terminal Twilight.
Oh, the vinyl packages of Wobbler's Hinterland, and Tusmorke's Fort Bak Lyset are equally superb.
Scandinavian Prog is wiping the floor with the rest for me.

Edited by Tom Ozric - May 14 2017 at 03:16